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Why don't they just say, " Look, we are racist here and if you would like to live in a racist state, raise your kids to be racist, and help perpetuate the myth that opression is not exsistant than move to Arizona!"
I mean really, REALLY!!! How can people assume that this is OK. I read a while back that Texas was also considering making changes to there public school system like not talking about the Civil Rights Movement and including how feminisim has failed.

This is truly unbelievable. I don't know what to think about this, it's almost too crazy to take seriously. With the immigration bill, there was at least language that could be interpreted and debated, such as "reasonable suspicion", but with this I just see blatant hate and racism- and to come out with this so close to SB1070! "WTF" is how I would describe my feelings, too... I'm just left wondering why now? Why now are all of these bills coming to surface? Is there an underlying motive other than just immigration "reform"? And what do they plan to accomplish here? Laying off experienced teachers because of accents? There has to be some law prohibiting that... I would hope so. I also wonder when educators will start protesting this.

I only read the news article that Ava linked to, but from what I gathered the bill is craftily promoting racism by using persuasive language in a way that makes it acceptable for lawmakers and school administration to rally behind. Forbidding curriculum that promotes the overthrow of the American government- that's pretty radical curriculum that I think few would support. While I firmly believe that the freedom of speech is perhaps one of the single most valuable freedoms American citizens have, teaching curricula that promotes the overthrow of the American government goes a bit too far. Forbidding schools to incorporate curricula that promotes resentment toward one race or another is another thing that would be widely supported. But banning cultural or ethnic studies classes? Come on. I think that classes of that nature are most valuable because it teaches understanding. I can see how ignorant lawmakers would believe that those classes teach ethnic solidarity, but anyone can take those classes. Anyone. It shouldn't matter the color of your skin or the origin of your family tree, you should be able to learn about other cultures and you should be able to learn about topics from a foreign standpoint. Further, eliminating teachers with accents just promotes discrimination. For students learning English, learning from a teacher who has an accent can be reassuring, knowing that if that person can learn, speak and teach English, so can they. An accent is not indicative of immigration status, patriotism or ability. If you discriminate based on accent, what's next? I can't teach in California because I have a Minnesota accent? Ava's title is accurate- WTF is up in Arizona?!

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This page contains a single entry by Ava published on April 30, 2010 6:11 PM.